Many providers of consumer goods and services, and other advertisers, herein also referred to as “product marketers”, are very interested in determining, as precisely as possible, what consumer markets are most receptive to a given product or service. That is to say, many product marketers would like to establish a profile for the typical consumer who is interested in a given product and/or service and/or who actually purchases a given product and/or service.
To this end many product marketers have developed, and currently employ, various methods for obtaining information regarding consumers of their products and/or services. These methods include gathering survey information, such as part of a product/warranty registration materials/process, and then processing and/or sharing this survey information in an effort to establish a profile for a typical consumer of a given product and/or service. However, current methods for obtaining information from consumers for determining a relevant market for a given a product and/or service are often of limited value in that they typically require proactive consumer action, i.e., they require consumer time and energy. This often results in minimal consumer participation, and/or responses from only certain segments of consumers, typically those with time, energy, and/or a hidden agenda/motivation.
In addition, current methods for obtaining information about consumers for determining a relevant market for a given a product and/or service typically yields little or no information regarding consumers who were perhaps attracted to given product and/or service but who, for whatever reason, did not actually purchase the product and/or service.
Many of the same product marketers that are interested in determining what market is most receptive to a given product or service also attempt to identify and/or create markets through the use of marketing devices such as, but not limited to: advertisements, coupons, discount certificates, price guarantees, and vouchers. While traditionally, some of these marketing devices, such as coupons, have been distributed in “hard-copy”, typically printed, form by various means, more recently, electronic media formats for marketing devices have been adopted.
These electronic media based marketing devices include, but are not limited to: screen pop-up/pop-up window advertisements and/or other marketing devices; search engine result based advertisements and/or other marketing devices; Vista operating system sidebar gadget advertisements and/or other marketing devices, and/or any sidebar display advertisements and/or other marketing devices; Internet browser plug-in advertisements and/or other marketing devices; pop-up link advertisements and/or other marketing devices; screen header, footer, sidebar, or frame displayed advertisements and/or other marketing devices; electronic attachment advertisements and/or other marketing devices; video and/or audio advertisements and/or other marketing devices; and/or any of various other advertisements and/or electronic media based marketing devices.
Typically, electronic media based marketing devices are distributed via: networks of computing systems, including public networks such as the Internet; web-sites; e-mail; cable television, satellite television, and/or “on demand” television services; data embedded in digital media such as DVDs, CDs, and MP3 files; data displayed in on-line digital media stores, such as iTunes; electronic attachments to electronic receipts; electronic attachments to transactional data, such as, but not limited to, transactional data from and/or displayed by, banks, credit card companies, and other financial institutions; and/or by any other method and/or mechanism for distributing an electronic media based marketing device.
While these recently adopted electronic media based marketing devices have proved very effective for creating sales, from a market analysis perspective, i.e., for the purpose of determining, as precisely as possible, what market is most receptive to a given product or service, these electronic media based marketing device have yielded little additional insight into what “type” of consumers are attracted to given product and/or service. This is especially true if, for whatever reason, the consumer does not actually purchase the product and/or service.
As a result of the situation discussed above, product marketers are currently unable to accurately determine a profile of consumers that are attracted to given product and/or service and/or how effective a give marketing campaign is, i.e., how many potential consumers of a defined “type” are attracted to a given marketing device and/or product. Consequently, many marketing opportunities are lost and many marketing campaigns and strategies for a given product and/or service are directed to the wrong consumer market, with minimal opportunity for accurate feedback regarding the actual market for and product and/or service.